Mississippi executes man convicted of killing estranged wife, the state's first since 2012
PARCHMAN, Miss. — A man who pleaded guilty to killing his estranged wife and sexually assaulting her young daughter as her mother lay dying was put to death Wednesday evening, becoming the first inmate executed in Mississippi in nine years.
David Neal Cox was put to death at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, after being on death row for over nine years.
Cox, 50, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m., Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain said.
Around 6:30 p.m., Cain addressed media to say Cox's execution went smoothly. His last words included a message to his children.
"I want my children to know that I love them very much and that I was a good man at one time," Cain said Cox told him, as Cain stood near Cox's head as he lie on the execution table.
Cox pleaded guilty in 2012 to capital murder for the May 2010 shooting death of his estranged wife, Kim Kirk Cox. He also pleaded guilty to multiple other charges, including sexual assault.
It was a crime the tiny town of Sherman, right outside of Tupelo, couldn't fathom.
Two years after his crimes, a jury in Union County unanimously sentenced Cox to death for capital murder and 185 years for his other charges.
On Wednesday, a spiritual adviser and two witnesses, unrelated to him, were there to support him, Cain said a few hours before Cox's execution. Department of Corrections officials were also in the execution room.
Leading up to the execution, Cain said he spoke with Cox about whether Cox would experience pain and what it would be like to transition into the afterlife.
Corrections commissioner on Cox's recent behavior
Four hours before Cox's scheduled execution, Cain addressed media to say leading up to the execution Cox had been calm and called the death row inmate upbeat.
"He did a little bit [of expressing remorse for his crimes] this afternoon," Cain said of the 45 minutes the two spoke. "I think he qualified it best saying 'I wasn't always that bad.'"
It's a tune different than Cox has had in past years.
In July 2018, three years after he tried to appeal his case, asking for a new sentencing hearing in a different location, he sent a handwritten letter to the local district attorney. Cox asked for his appeals and lawyers to be dismissed and for the court to set a date for his execution.
By 4:45 p.m., Cain told media he and two other department of corrections officials and three chaplains shared Cox's last meal with him, including coleslaw, hush puppies, banana pudding, French fries and fried catfish.
In his court motions asking to waive his appeal, Cox talked about wanting to give his victim's family closure.
"He talked about closure to the victims, particularly to his sons, because, you know, for taking their mom and so forth," Cain said. "So he has been remorseful and that's a good thing."
Protesters speak out
As night fell across the rural Delta land, a handful of protesters, objecting over Cox's execution, gathered a few hundred feet from the front gates of Parchman.
Sheila O'Flaherty, of Jackson, has spoken out against every execution in Mississippi since 1983.
“I wish we’d wake up and quit doing it,” she said. “It’s violent.”
She said back then, the candlelight vigils used to happen at midnight. However, on Wednesday around 5 p.m., the breeze blew too strong to light the candles.
Behind a flashlight, about five people against the death penalty gathered to read a liturgy, just half an hour before Cox was killed by lethal injection.
Greg Spore, who works with the state’s public defender’s office in the capital defense division, said this is the first time he's come out to an execution to demonstrate. Spore has a client on death row and said he values the lives of all his clients.
"This is a terribly uninspiring day because this is state-sanctioned," he said.
A day earlier, several organizations and faith leaders gathered outside the Mississippi State Capitol admonishing the death penalty, calling it immoral and unlawful. They urged for Gov. Tate Reeves to halt Cox's execution.
On Tuesday evening, Reeves and Attorney General Lynn Fitch communicated neither would intervene with the planned execution.
What led up to Cox's execution?
David and Kim Cox separated in 2009 after Kim's daughter, who was a minor at the time, said David sexually assaulted her, according to court documents. Kim reported the incident to the police and David Cox was subsequently arrested.
A month after he was released in April 2010, David Cox purchased a handgun and went to the home of his sister-in-law, where Kim Cox and three of her children — including her two boys with David — were staying.
Court records report David Cox took his estranged wife, stepdaughter and one of their shared children hostage for over eight hours. During that time, he shot Kim Cox in the stomach and sexually assaulted his stepdaughter in front of a dying Kim, according to court documents.
Benny Kirk, Kim's father, said David Cox called and put Kim on the phone, who told her father she was dying. Kirk said David then threatened the lives of other family members.
Follow reporter Mina Corpuz on Twitter: @mlcorpuz.
Contributing: The Associated Press